Sir Joseph Noel Paton, R.S.A. (Dunfermline, Fife, 1821-1909 Edinburgh)

The Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in the Crimea, and staff.

Details

Sir Joseph Noel Paton, R.S.A. (Dunfermline, Fife, 1821-1909 Edinburgh)
The Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in the Crimea, and staff.
dated 'January1855' (lower right) and inscribed 'THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE BRITISH FORCES IN THE CRIMEA,/AND STAFF/-"Let the Galled Jade wince"-' (below the mount, lower centre)
pen and brown ink on paper, in artist's wash line border
14 ½ x 18 ¼ in. (36.8 x 46.3 cm.)

Provenance

The artist and thence by descent to,
R. Cross Esq.
Col. A. R. Cross, and thence by descent to the present owner.

Literature

A. Auld, Exhibition catalogue, Fact and Fancy: Drawings and Paintings by Sir Joseph Noel Paton (1821-1901), The Scottish Art Council, April 1967, p. 13, no. 15., illus. p. 26.

Exhibited

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1871 no. 827.
Edinburgh, Scottish National Exhibition, 1908.
Edinburgh, The Scottish Art Council, Fact and Fancy: Drawings and Paintings by Sir Joseph Noel Paton, 1967, no. 15.
Munich, British Council, Haus der Kunst, Zwei Jahrhunderte Englische Malerei, November 1979 –January 1980, no. 326, catalogue not traced.

Lot Essay

'Disease and famine are depicted following the figure of Death. Boxes labelled 'Winter Clothing' and 'Medical Stores' lie unopened and rotting and Death holds as a baton a despatch marked 'Routine'. All this underlines the logistic chaos that existed during this anything but glamorous and heroic war commemorated in Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade'. Paton was urged to publish this design but he refused to do so fearing it might be regarded as levelled at Lord Raglan, C-inC. British Forces in the Crimea.' (Auld, Fact and Fancy..p.13.)

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